1 Peter

Let us pray. Father, as with every week, we ask that you would help us to be people that submit to your word.

We wouldn't be people that try to bend your word or get around it, but that it would confront us.

Lord, this morning, as we enter into 1 Peter, Lord, teach us what it means to be faithful citizens of heaven, but here on earth.

Lord, empower us. Help us not to just hear words and think it's pleasant and nice and then go on with our lives, Lord, by your Holy Spirit.

Change us, we ask. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

A huge question that I wrestle with, and many of you wrestle with, at least the ones that I've talked to,

is how we ought to live as God's people in our city, in a culture that is on one hand tolerant,

on one hand it's relatively free and just, it's full of opportunity.

Often quite pleasant people live around us, we work with, even the people that aren't super pleasant aren't terribly mean.

Yet at the same time, we live in a culture that is somewhat incompatible with living as a faithful Christian in this life.

We are trying, by God's strength, to live faithfully in Ottawa in 2024.

Do you not feel this tension? Do you not feel the push and pull?

Sometimes you feel like you are a fish swimming along the current.

You wonder, this is just what it looks like to be a Christian in this time.

Sometimes you look no different from your neighbor or co-worker.

You dress the same, you eat the same, you look for the same deals, you celebrate when you get gas under $1.60.

You share a lot of the same victories, so to speak, the same worldview.

But, on the flip side, you feel the pressures as you try to live as a Christian,

and you feel this incompatibility with what it means to be a Christian in Ottawa 2024.

And maybe you kick the tires around, well maybe we just move out of the city.

And we just kind of pull away from, move out of the city in a figurative way, literally as well.

But we're just pulling out.

We don't want to be engaged.

We want to be completely separate.

It's too hard.

We want to unplug in as many possible ways as we can,

because it's just too hard to live as a Christian in our day.

Should we engage?

Should we pull out?

King Solomon says something wonderful in Ecclesiastes.

He says there's nothing new under the sun.

Every generation of Christians, every generation of believers,

all the way to the opening chapters of Genesis,

God's people have had to wrestle with this question of how to live faithfully

as his people in society.

How to thread the needle between conformity on one hand and resistance on the other.

You feel this tension.

You struggle with it.

If you do, you're in good company.

If you don't, you might in the weeks to come.

Fortunately for us, 1 Peter equips us and encourages us in this regard.

Peter is writing to a number of different churches in what is modern-day Turkey.

He is writing in the time of Nero.

If you know Nero, you know that he was a very cruel Caesar.

He was not just a guy that you disagreed with.

He would kill you.

He would flay you.

He would crucify you.

And here, Peter is saying to the churches in this first century,

in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, and to us today,

there is a way forward.

And it's not pulling out, and it's not assimilating fully.

So, as we get into our text this morning,

we're actually not going to be in 1 Peter 1, 1-12.

We're actually just going to be in 1 Peter 1, verses 1-2.

1 Peter 1:1–2

And a part of that is just the way Peter has written this epistle.

If you ever get lost on, like, Wikipedia scrolling,

you look up something, and then there's hyperlinks everywhere.

You get excited about, oh, I want to learn about this.

And you click it, and then you're like 12 clicks in,

and you realize it's just an endless, bottomless hole of information.

But it's deep, and it's thick.

Peter's kind of like that.

He uses a lot of theological terms, a lot of Old Testament allusions,

that you could double-click,

and you're not going to understand the full meaning of what's happening

until you know what Peter is getting at.

And verses 1 and 2 set the table, so to speak,

for the rest of the letter, and it is full of these allusions.

Verse 1 and 2, it's thick, it's deep,

and we're going to explore it this morning.

And we're going to look at three different aspects of verses 1 and 2.

And again, in mind, in the back of our minds, we have this question,

how do we live as God's people in Ottawa in 2024 faithfully?

The first is who we are.

What's our identity?

Peter will tell us that we're elect exiles.

The second thing he will tell us is that,

or the second question we'll have answered is,

how we have come to be these elect exiles.

And that is through the triune God and his salvation.

And then finally, in light of who we are and how we came to be who we are,

how are we then to live?

And we'll look at the last verse in verse 2.

So if you have a Bible, turn with me to 1 Peter 1, starting in the first verse.

There's still a couple more Bibles in the back.

If you want to grab it at any time, don't worry about interrupting me.

I'd be very pleased if you would follow along.

I'll read verse 1.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion,

in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia,

according to the fort...

I'll just read...

I'll stop there.

So Peter is introducing himself.

He's writing to a collection of churches in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey.

Almost certainly, they are predominantly Gentiles.

That is non-Jewish.

These are people that have come from all sorts of different religious backgrounds.

Almost certainly, they have multiple gods that they are serving,

one of whom would almost certainly be Caesar.

They are non-Jewish.

They're not a part of the biblical people of God that we read about in the Old Testament.

They're not Israelites.

And this is significant because what we see Peter do

is that he calls them elect exiles of the dispersion or the diaspora.

These terms are full of meaning.

Remember, this is like Wikipedia.

We can double-click, double-click, double-click,

and we're going to have a wealth of information.

So we're not going to exhaust these terms,

but we need to take a look at them.

These terms are full of meaning.

Specifically, the terms, again, elect exiles in the dispersion or diaspora.

And they all allude back to the Old Testament people of God,

the Israelite nation.

In fact, in chapter 2,

so much will Peter identify these predominantly Gentile churches

with Old Testament language that is specific to the nation of Israel

that he will call these people a holy nation.

This is a term only for Israelites.

It's remarkable what he is doing.

And it's significant for three reasons.

The first is Peter's a pious Jew.

And if you know the story of Peter,

especially from Acts 10,

Peter isn't super jazzed about non-Jewish people.

I mean, I think the majority of the people here,

if not everybody here, they're non-Jews.

Peter, back in Acts 10, not super fond of you guys.

Maybe he doesn't necessarily hate you,

but he's skittish around you.

He's skittish around non-Jews.

He thinks like, listen,

the Jewish Messiah has come for the Jewish people.

Sucks to be you, Gentiles.

I mean, it's,

maybe we can include a Rahab here.

We can include a Ruth there.

But overall,

we're not going to,

all of a sudden,

destroy boundary markers.

In Acts 10,

it takes God three,

it takes Peter three visions from God

to even warm up to the idea

of visiting Cornelius,

if you know the story.

Cornelius being a non-Jewish Roman soldier

who comes to faith,

him and his family.

Later on in Galatians,

we see Paul talking about a situation

where he had to confront Peter

for treating non-Jewish believers

as second-class citizens.

It was a problem.

You see,

things are kind of hard for us to understand

in modern day times

because,

by and large,

we say,

can a Jew become a Christian?

But in the early church,

it was,

can a non-Jew become a Christian?

The first church council in Acts 15

dealt with this very question.

So it's remarkable that Peter,

this Israelite nationalist,

so to speak,

the person who's skittish around non-Jews,

treating non-Jewish believers

as second-class citizens,

he's not saying,

hey, listen,

you're okay now.

He is using the very language,

this inclusive language,

as if they are Jews just like him.

This ought not to be lost on us.

What Peter is doing is remarkable,

and what he is communicating

is that God has done an incredible thing,

that he has welcomed all people

from all backgrounds,

regardless of your ethnicity,

into the family of God,

if you have put your faith and trust in Christ.

The second significant bit about this

is that Peter calls them exile.

So going back to the first part,

he calls them elect,

chosen people,

that is a term only used for the Jewish people.

Now he calls them elect,

or foreigners.

Peter is connecting this church,

this group of churches

in Asia Minor,

modern-day Turkey,

back to the father of the faith,

Abraham himself.

Abraham,

he was the father of the Israelite nation,

but he was a foreigner.

He came from what is modern-day Iraq's,

not exactly sure exactly where it is,

but he was called out of a distant land

and became a foreigner in the land of Canaan,

where God would give him and his descendants

the land that really points to heaven.

It's a covenantal term

that's connected to Abraham,

which means that God made a promise to Abraham

and his descendants forever,

and that was only understood to be

for the Israelites,

to the Jewish people.

And now Peter

seems to be extending that again

out to the non-Jewish people.

It seems that through Christ

something groundbreaking has happened.

There is one true faith,

and it is now for all people,

again, regardless of ethnicity.

All who put their faith in Christ

are now foreigners,

pilgrims on the way.

They're meant for a future home.

As Abraham went to Canaan

and God promised him a future home,

so too are we,

promised a new heavenly city.

And all of a sudden,

we start to see that Peter

is helping us to understand

who we are in Jesus,

which is critical

if we are to live out this life

faithfully here in Ottawa in 2024.

And the final bit of significance,

it's connected to this term

dispersion or diaspora.

So in the biblical story,

the Israelites became dispersed.

Why?

Because they were not faithful

to God's covenant.

They worshipped other gods.

They went after other things

that displeased God,

that were evil, sinful,

broken, and bent.

So God gave them up to their unfaithfulness,

and they were scattered.

Assyria, Persia,

or Babylon, Persia,

Greece, Rome,

across the known world.

But God promised that he would not allow

his people to remain forever dispersed.

They would be gathered once again

through the might and sacrifice

of a Savior, the Messiah.

They would be given new hearts.

A new covenant would be made with them.

Their sins would be remembered no more.

Their hope would be in the old,

would not be in the old Jerusalem,

but in the heavenly Jerusalem.

These Gentiles who put their faith in the Messiah,

Jesus,

had completely new identities.

They were God's people

enjoying the promises that God made

to his elect Israelites,

Israelites,

but now it included elect Gentiles.

Peter is telling us

that if you are in Christ,

you are no longer the same.

The feelings of being unsettled,

not belonging,

constantly wandering,

and when I say wandering,

not literally,

but you're just unsettled.

You can't figure life out.

This is no longer your identity.

You have a home.

You are a people.

You have a father.

You have a God.

And this is a promise that is rooted,

this new identity of yours,

it is rooted not in the changing fads,

the shifting values,

but in the unchanging God

of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,

the God of creation.

And all of a sudden,

you are no longer a second-class citizen.

You are not far away.

You have a new identity,

and your identity is Christian.

This is good news.

And what is even better news about this

is that the initiative was not yours,

but it was the initiative of God.

It's the God before the world began,

he had in mind redemption,

and it included you.

And this brings us to our second point.

If that is our identity,

how have we come to this identity?

Look with me in verse 2.

We'll read verse 1, actually,

the second part of verse 1,

and then we'll read verse 2.

To those who are the elect exiles

of the dispersion,

according to the foreknowledge

of God the Father,

in the sanctification of the Spirit,

for obedience to Jesus Christ,

and for sprinkling with his blood.

Your fundamental identity

as a child of God

was not some ad hoc decision

by God.

It wasn't some kind of plan B.

God the Father has always known

that you would be saved.

Always knew it.

He always had in mind

a plan of rescue,

of redemption,

and it included you.

We read John 10

that Jesus knows his sheep.

And what's implied there

is that he knows them,

every aspect of them,

who they are,

how they function,

their fears,

their sins,

the secrets that they keep.

There was never a time

that he did not know you

and did not purpose

to proclaim the gospel to you

so that you could hear

and respond

and come to faith in Jesus.

He took the initiative.

He made the first move.

He knew that your wanderings

were the undoing of you.

And what does he do?

He saves you.

He makes you a citizen

of the heavenly city,

the new Jerusalem,

heaven.

Friends, this is the doctrine

of election.

There is much more

to talk about,

about this doctrine,

and maybe I'll end up

touching on it

in our midweek

sermon recap

because it really is

incredibly deep

and big

and thick.

But the big takeaway

is that we can be assured

that God extends mercy

and grace to us

not because

we have had

a stellar week,

not because we come from

a great family

or a great people group,

or our parents did

really well

and we're reaping the benefits

of their good living.

It was only

by God's good pleasure

that you are saved.

The initiative is God's.

He is the one

who has done it all

and often,

in fact,

in every case,

it is in spite

of the things you've done.

It's because of the things

you've done

that he saves you

because you need saving.

And this is good news

because our salvation

doesn't rise

and fall

by our own strength

and efforts.

I am somebody

who believes

and then struggles

with belief

and then struggles

with belief

and then struggles

with belief a bit more

and then sometimes

the belief

kind of goes up

maybe two,

three,

four levels.

I'm feeling pretty good

about myself

and then something happens

and I struggle

with belief.

If my salvation

was tied to that,

I'd be in a pitiful state.

It would be

by the whims

of how I felt

or how hard I tried

or the way

I ate the night before.

I don't know.

The point is

it would be on me.

God says something different.

It is by his good pleasure

and his alone

that he saves us

and this is a work,

friends,

of the Holy Spirit.

So we see that

God the Father

has foreknown us

in salvation

and that the Holy Spirit

then plays

this critical

and huge part

in our salvation.

The Holy Spirit

allows us to hear the Gospel,

to see our need

for the Gospel,

to respond to the Gospel

in a worthy manner

and grow

in the knowledge

of the Gospel.

In many ways,

the Holy Spirit

enlivens us.

He gives us

the very impetus

to even follow

the Lord

and therefore

the Holy Spirit

transforms us.

first,

our identity.

We no longer

are we citizens

of this earth.

We are citizens

of heaven

and then by his strength

he conforms us,

he changes us,

that we

abide by

and obey

what God

has called us to.

Sin no longer

has a hold

on our lives.

This is the doctrine

of sanctification.

It's at work with us

through the Spirit of God.

Again,

sanctification,

big word.

Think about a refining fire

that God

through the Holy Spirit

is burning

the bad parts

away from us

so that we would be

a pure silver

or pure gold.

Much more to talk about

with sanctification.

Again,

that's a double click.

That's a full day

of double clicking

right there.

And this work

of the Holy Spirit

ultimately points us

to Christ,

the incarnate God,

the Son of God.

So,

we are foreknown

by God the Father

in the sanctification

of the Spirit

for obedience

to Jesus Christ

and for the sprinkling

with His blood.

And again,

we see this allusion

back to the Old Testament

and it goes back

to Exodus 24

and the people of Israel

are before God.

They have been rescued

from Egypt.

They have been brought

through the desert.

They receive the law

and God makes a covenant

with them at Sinai,

this big mountain

where God shows Himself

strong and mighty.

And there's a sacrifice.

Moses,

who is the leader,

he takes the blood

that is sacrificed.

Stick with me

because blood

and sprinkling,

it sounds weird,

but he takes the blood

and the people

are before him

and they promise

to obey God

and he sprinkles them

with the blood.

It's a bizarre scene

for us,

but this is what happens

in the Old Testament.

The sprinkling of the blood

alludes back

to this scene

and really what it connects us to

is that God is,

He has chosen a people

of His own

and He is consecrating them.

He is separating them.

He is making them holy,

not in what they do,

but by their connection to Him

so that they would then be

obedient to the mission of God.

But there was a problem

because the Israelites,

they vowed to follow God

and to obey Him.

If you know the story,

it is time after time

after time again

that they fail

and they say,

oh, we're sorry,

we'll get back on the cart,

we're going to keep going

and obeying God

and then there's this progressive

evil and sin

and brokenness

that seeps into their very being.

I mentioned the diaspora before.

Ultimately,

they get dispersed.

And why?

It's because ultimately

their hearts

were not transformed.

That the blood of bulls and goats

could not transform their hearts.

But what Peter is saying here

is that by the sprinkling

of Jesus' blood,

those that have put their faith

in Jesus

and what He has done on the cross,

this is what all of those sacrifices

pointed to.

This is the once and for all sacrifice

and that God,

if He has sprinkled

His blood upon you,

Jesus,

the Son of God,

you are His.

You are consecrated.

But He does something even greater.

He gives you a new heart.

He transforms you

so that you are capable

of obeying Him.

He has atoned for your sins.

He has consecrated you

as a holy people.

He has given you the ability,

a new heart,

the indwelling of the Holy Spirit,

to then obey Him.

This is the big takeaway.

Our identity

could only be transformed

by the sacrificial,

life-giving,

life-saving death

of Jesus

upon a Roman cross

so that He

calls you

and takes you

for His own.

It took that

and nothing less than that

for you to have new life,

a new identity,

a new citizenship

in the heavenly city.

This is why

all other forms

of spirituality

aren't just lesser forms

of spirituality.

They are false forms

of spirituality.

This tells us

that true spirituality

can only be rooted

in atonement.

What do I mean by that?

True spirituality

can only happen

when we are connected

to the only

and perfect God

because He has

taken away

our sins,

remembering them

no more.

That we are no longer

called

by our old names,

but we are called

by our new names

so that when God,

the Father,

looks at us,

He doesn't see

our brokenness

and evil

and our sin

and the abuse

that we have

leveled at people

and the nasty words

we have said

or the gossip

we have engaged in,

the promiscuity

that we would like

to hide.

He sees Christ Himself

and we can know Him

in a completely honest

and vulnerable way

and this is true spirituality.

other forms of spirituality

would have us

try really hard

to tip the scales

back onto the good side

to figure out a way

to erase the red ledger,

the red ink

on the ledger.

It would find a way

to pretend

that what happened

in the past

didn't really happen

or we can excuse it

or find nuance

but none of that

will connect us

to the one true God

and therefore

our spirituality

is false.

We might feel

grounded,

we might have

excellent breathing techniques,

we might be

feeling like we are

at one

with the universe

but all of that

are just feelings,

that is not true spirituality.

What Peter is telling us

is that true spirituality

can only be rooted

in the atonement

of our sins

by the blood of Christ.

Friends,

this is good news

and yet

this is our new identity,

this is how we've got

our new identity,

we are not ours,

no longer,

we have been bought

and consecrated

by Christ

and yet we still live

in Ottawa,

don't we?

We might be citizens

of the new heavens

but we live here

we're paying rent,

we're paying property tax,

we're getting nabbed

at the speed trap

on Shea Road

all too often.

We are living

in Ottawa.

So,

how do we live faithfully?

This is

at the very end

of verse 2.

This is what it says.

By the way,

that's me getting nabbed

at the speed trap

on Shea.

Yeah,

it's a problem.

This is what it says.

How are we to live?

May grace and peace

be multiplied to you.

It seems simple,

it seems like

it's the Christian thing

to say

at the end of a greeting,

that's what Peter is saying.

But no,

this is,

may grace and peace

be multiplied to you,

this is the entirety

of 1 Peter

concentrated

down to,

to one sentence.

When I was a kid,

we did a mission trip.

Our church was connected

to this other church

in Belfast

and Belfast

has some really,

really poor neighborhoods

and we got to run a VBS

and stuff like that.

Anyways,

we got there.

I grew up

just chugging juice

a lot

and we would buy it

by the dozen

in the frozen cans

and we'd pour the frozen can

and you'd mix it up.

You guys know what's up

with the frozen can.

Well,

in Belfast,

they just have a container

that looks like juice

but it is concentrate

and you just pour a little bit in

and you pour your water

and you have juice.

It's actually a lot easier

than cans of frozen juice.

But when I got there,

I'm used to chugging juice

and I go out

and buy a thing of concentrate.

I just drink the whole thing.

I'm just like,

man,

they have really sweet drinks

here in the UK.

I had no idea

what was happening

until this lady

had a laugh at my expense.

That's just a stupid story

just to say that

all of 1 Peter

and really all of the Christian faith

is concentrated,

concentrated

into this one sentence.

May grace and peace

be multiplied to you.

It can be expanded.

It can be stretched out.

It can be explored.

We can spend

the rest of our life

exploring what grace is

and what peace is

and what it means

that God is multiplying it

and what it means

that he is giving it

and what it means

for it to be given to us.

But this is it.

This is what it means

to be a Christian,

that grace and peace

will be multiplied to you

and this is how we are to live

in Ottawa

here in 2024.

We are to live

with the assurance

that God will grant us

grace and peace

without measure.

Grace to grow in holiness

and obedience.

Grace also to ask for forgiveness

and know that we are receiving it.

peace when we feel the pain

of that holiness

and obedience

as it grinds up

against the cultural moment

of our day.

The whole of the Christian life

is grace and peace.

It is a mark of those

who enjoy divine blessing

and goodness,

who are sojourners,

who are resident aliens,

who have citizenship in heaven,

yet they live here on earth.

grace and peace

in abundance.

Like I mentioned

at the beginning

that this letter

was written

in the time of Nero.

Nero,

wherever you fall

politically,

no politician

that Canada has ever had

hasn't held a candle

to Nero, okay?

You might not like

him or her,

but they're not Nero.

It was a very tumultuous time

in the first century.

In some ways,

more difficult

than it is now,

although now

it might be more difficult

than it was then.

Either way,

it's always been difficult

to be a Christian.

And yet,

the message

that Peter gives us

is the same then

as it is now.

It is grace and peace

be multiplied to you.

This will be the strength,

friends,

that you need

to endure hardship

and suffering.

And hardship and suffering

will come

if you are being faithful

to Christ.

This letter

has strengthened Christians

throughout the centuries

to suffer well

and in doing so

proclaim the hope

of salvation

and eternal blessing.

How?

Because we imitate

Christ

who himself

suffered perfectly.

In fact,

he suffered so perfectly

that he exposed

and destroyed evil,

sin,

and death

through his suffering.

He turned it all

on its head.

The resurrection

was this huge

declaration to the world

that no longer

will evil prevail.

No longer will sin

win the day.

No longer will our flesh

be masters over us.

And he says

that we who are in him

get to partake in that.

We are now his.

We are now holy.

We are now citizens

of heaven.

And over the next few weeks

let us learn together

about what it looks like

to live as people

that are enjoying

and needing

and receiving

grace and peace abounding.

Let's pray.

Father in heaven,

we thank you

for the great wisdom

of your word.

Lord,

we thank you

for the Holy Spirit

that spoke through

the Apostle Peter.

Lord,

our time is much different

than it was

in the first century.

And yet,

we are still

feeling the tension

of what it means

to participate

in the world,

the city,

the neighborhoods,

the workplaces

that we live in

and not be

on the flip side

assimilated to it.

Lord,

we need your help.

We need your strength.

We want to grow

in holiness.

We want to proclaim

your goodness

and your gospel.

And Lord,

we just need your help.

So Lord,

this week

and for the weeks

to come,

Lord,

may grace and peace

abound to us.

May we be

ever asking that.

May those

two things

be the things

that we pray about

day in and day out.

And that trust

that by faith

we will receive

because you are

willing to give.

We pray this

in Christ's name.

Amen.